MSA Agreements

Meat Standards Australia (MSA), a programme of Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), was developed by the Australian red meat industry to improve the eating quality consistency of beef and sheepmeat. 

The system is based on almost 1.7 million consumer taste tests by more than 250,000 consumers from 13 countries and considers all factors that affect eating quality from the paddock to plate.  

MSA involves all sectors of the supply chain from paddock to plate. A wide range of cattle and sheep management practices, processing systems, cuts, ageing periods and cooking methods have been researched to determine the impact each has on eating quality. 

MLA supports MSA program participants through creating opportunities for businesses to adopt eating quality principles.

New MSA Licence Agreement  

Since mid-2024, MSA has been engaging with a broad group of licensees over the past year to bring existing agreements up to date and lay the groundwork for this new approach. The New Licence Agreement is designed to simplify and streamline the MSA licensing process for the MSA trade marks and MSA grading software. It replaces multiple existing licences with a single, standard agreement that applies to all participants in the MSA program.  

This consolidated approach ensures consistency and reduces administrative burden and costs to both for MLA and licensees. By reducing the administrative costs and time, MLA can devote more resources to improving the quality of the MSA program and focus on compliance. The new approach also helps ensure that all participants in the MSA program are operating under clear, up-to-date and fair terms. 

The key changes include: 

(a)     consolidating all existing licence types (saleyards, processors, boning rooms, outlets and brand owners) into one agreement for consistency of terms across all licensees; 

(b)     review of all terms to ensure consistency with Australia’s Unfair Contract Terms (UCT) regime and enhanced fairness for licensees; and  

(c)      conducting a general update of key terms to reflect changes in legislation and MLA policies.  

All new MSA Licensees will be on the new terms.  

A copy of the New Licence Agreement can be found on the MyMSA platform or via this link.

Existing MSA Licence Agreements 

Each MSA licensee will receive a notice setting out the above information and the date that the new terms become effective.  

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 

Here is a list of FAQS on our New MSA Licence Agreement.